On 27 September 1954, the F-100A officially entered USAF service with the
479th Fighter Wing, based at
George AFB, California. During 1961, the withdrawal of all USAF F-100As had been completed; by that time, 47 aircraft had been lost in major accidents. However, the F-100A was largely used for aircrew training during this time. Due to attrition, the ANG ceased operating the F-100A during 1967 while the USAF opted to permanently retire the model in early 1970. The F-100C fighter-bomber entered service on 14 July 1955 with the
450th Fighter Wing at
Foster AFB, Texas. Operational testing in 1955 revealed that the F-100C was at best an interim solution, sharing all the flaws of the F-100A. The uprated J57-P-21 engine boosted performance, although it continued to suffer from
compressor stalls, but the F-100C was considered an excellent platform for nuclear
toss bombing because of its high top speed. The inertia coupling problem was reasonably addressed with the installation of a
yaw damper in the 146th F-100C, which was later retrofitted to earlier aircraft. A pitch damper was added, starting with the 301st F-100C, at a cost of US$10,000 per aircraft. The 450s proved scarce and expensive and were often replaced by smaller 335 US gal (1,290 L) tanks. Most troubling to TAC was the fact that, as of 1965, only 125 F-100Cs were capable of using all non-nuclear weapons in the USAF inventory, particularly
cluster bombs and
AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. By the time the F-100C was phased out in June 1970, 85 had been lost in major accidents. The F-100D entered service on 29 September 1956 with the
405th Fighter Wing at
Langley AFB. The model exhibited reliability problems from the onset, particularly with the constant-speed inverter which provided constant-frequency current to the electrical systems. This unit was so unreliable that the USAF required it to have its own oil system to minimize damage in case of failure. Landing gear and brake parachute malfunctions claimed several aircraft while the refueling probes had a tendency to break away during high-speed maneuvers. During 1959, 65 aircraft were modified to also fire the
AGM-12 Bullpup air-to-ground missile. Numerous post-production fixes created such a diversity of capabilities between individual aircraft that by 1965, around 700 F-100Ds underwent High Wire modifications to standardize the weapon systems. On 26 March 1958, an F-100D fitted with an
Astrodyne booster rocket making of thrust successfully performed a
zero-length launch. This capability was incorporated into late-production aircraft. It received many of the same weapons and airframe upgrades as the F-100D, including the new afterburners. Various modifications, largely focused on the structure, were made during the F-100F's service life; several were adapted with special equipment for
electronic warfare operations and saw use in this capacity in Vietnam. By June 1970, 74 F-100Fs had been lost in major accidents. The pilot's operating manual warned that the F-100F would not recover from a spin. The model was phased out of USAF service in 1972. On July 15, 1958, the
354th Tactical Fighter Wing deployed 29 F-100Ds and Fs to
Incirlik Air Base during the
1958 Lebanon crisis to support the
Marine landing in
Beirut to form a composite air strike force with
B-57s,
RB-66s,
C-124s,
RF-101s, and
C-130s. In August, 1958, the USAF sent F-100Ds, F-101Cs,
F-104As, and B-57Bs to Taiwan during the
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis to demonstrate support for Taiwan. during the crisis. On May 2, 1965, 18 USAF F-100s flew from
Ramey Air Force Base in Puerto Rico to support
Operation Power Pack flying 313 combat sorties before returning to
Myrtle Beach on May 28. After a major accident, the USAF Thunderbirds reverted from F-105 Thunderchiefs to the F-100D, which they operated from 1964 until it was replaced by the
McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II in 1968. By 1972, the F-100 was mostly phased out of USAF active service and turned over to tactical fighter groups and squadrons in the ANG. In ANG units, the F-100 was eventually replaced by the F-4 Phantom II,
LTV A-7D Corsair II, and
Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, with the last F-100 retiring in 1979 as the
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon was phased in. In foreign service, the
Royal Danish Air Force and
Turkish Air Force F-100s soldiered on until 1982. Over the lifetime of its USAF service, 889 F-100s were destroyed in accidents, resulting in the deaths of 324 pilots. The deadliest year for F-100 accidents was 1958, which saw 116 aircraft destroyed and 47 pilots killed. Pilots trained on the F-100A at Edwards Air Force Base and George Air Force Base in California and then at
Palmdale Air Force Base for training with the actual RF-100As with which they would be deployed. Flight tests revealed that the RF-100A in its intended operational fit of four external tanks was lacking in directional and longitudinal stability, requiring careful handling and close attention to speed limitations for the drop tanks. Once pilot training was completed in April 1955, three aircraft were deployed to
Bitburg Air Base in Germany, flying to
Brookley AFB in Mobile, Alabama, cocooned, loaded on an aircraft carrier and delivered to Short Brothers at Sydenham, Belfast, for reassembly and flight preparation. At Bitburg, they were assigned to Detachment 1 of the 7407th Support Squadron, and commenced operations flying over Eastern Bloc countries at high altitude (over 50,000 ft) to acquire intelligence on military targets. Many attempts were made to intercept these aircraft to no avail, with some photos of fighter airfields clearly showing aircraft climbing for attempted intercepts. The European detachment probably only carried out six missions between mid-1955 and mid-1956 when the
Lockheed U-2 took over as the deep-penetration
aerial reconnaissance asset. Three RF-100As were also deployed to the
6021st Reconnaissance Squadron at
Yokota Air Base in Japan, but details of operations there are not available. Two RF-100As were lost in accidents, one due to probable overspeeding, which caused the separation of one of the drop tanks and resulted in complete loss of control, and the other due to an engine flame-out. In mid-1958, all four remaining RF-100As were returned to the US and later supplied to the Republic of China Air Force in Taiwan.
Project High Wire during a military exercise "High Wire" was a modernization program performed upon selected F-100Cs, F-100Ds and F-100Fs. It comprised two modifications - an electrical rewiring upgrade and a heavy maintenance and inspect-and-repair as necessary (IRAN) upgrade. Rewiring upgrade operations consisted of replacing old wiring and harnesses with improved maintainable designs. Heavy maintenance and IRAN included new kits, modifications, standardized configurations, repairs, replacements, and complete refurbishment. This project required all new manuals and incremented (i.e. -85 to -86) block numbers. All later-production models, especially the F models, included earlier High Wire modifications. New manuals included colored illustrations and had the Roman numeral (I) added after the aircraft number (e.g. T.O. 1F-100D(I)-1S-120, 12 January 1970). High Wire modifications took 60 days per aircraft at a cost for the entire project of US$150 million.
Vietnam War Fighter and close air support missions , South Vietnam, in late June or early July 1965 On 16 April 1961, six Super Sabres were deployed from
Clark Air Base in the Philippines to
Don Muang Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand for air-defense purposes, the first F-100s to enter combat in Southeast Asia.
MiG-17, using cannon fire, while another fired AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. The surviving North Vietnamese pilot confirmed three of the MiG-17s had been shot down. Although recorded by the US Air Force as a probable kill, this represented the first aerial victory by the US Air Force in Vietnam. The small force of four MiG-17s, though, had penetrated the escorting F-100s to claim two F-105s. The F-100 was soon replaced by the F-4C Phantom II for MiG CAP, which pilots noted suffered for lacking built-in guns for dogfights. The United States military in the Vietnam War was not known for using activated
Army National Guard, Air National Guard, or other US Reserve units, but rather, relying on
conscription during the course of the war. During a confirmation hearing before
Congress in 1973, Air Force General
George S. Brown, who had commanded the
7th Air Force during the war, stated that five of the best Super Sabre squadrons in Vietnam were from the Air National Guard. This included the
(120 TFS) of the
Colorado Air National Guard, the
136 TFS of the
New York Air National Guard TFS, the
174 TFS of the
Iowa Air National Guard, and the
188 TFS of the
New Mexico Air National Guard. The fifth unit was a regular AF squadron manned by mostly air national guardsmen. The Air National Guard F-100 squadrons increased the regular USAF by nearly 100 Super Sabres in theater, averaging, for the Colorado ANG F-100s, 24 missions a day, delivering ordnance and munitions with a 99.5% reliability rate. From May 1968 to April 1969, the ANG Super Sabres flew more than 38,000 combat hours and more than 24,000 sorties. Between them, at the cost of seven F-100 Air Guard pilots killed (plus one staff officer) and the loss of 14 Super Sabres to enemy action, the squadrons expended over four million rounds of
20 mm shells, 30 million pounds of bombs and over 10 million pounds of
napalm against their enemy. The Hun was also deployed as a two-seat F-100F model, which served as a "fast FAC" or Misty FAC in North Vietnam and Laos, spotting targets for other fighter-bomber aircraft, performing road reconnaissance, and conducting search-and-rescue missions as part of the top-secret Commando Sabre project, based out of
Phu Cat and
Tuy Hoa air bases. By the conflict's end, 242 F-100s of various models had been lost in Vietnam, as the F-100 was progressively replaced by the F-4 Phantom II and the F105 Thunderchief. The Hun had logged 360,283 combat sorties during the war and its wartime operations came to end on 31 July 1971. The four fighter wings with F-100s flew more combat sorties in Vietnam than over 15,000
North American P-51 Mustangs had flown during World War II. After 1967, they did not fly into North Vietnam as much and mainly performed close air-support missions for American units in the South. Despite the April 1965 dogfight, which the USAF classified as resulting in a "probable" kill, no F-100 was ever officially credited with any aerial victories. No F-100 in Vietnam was lost to enemy fighters, but 186 were shot down by antiaircraft fire, 7 were destroyed in
Vietcong attacks on airbases, and 45 crashed in operational incidents.
Wild Weasel The F-100 was also the first Wild Weasel
air defense suppression aircraft, whose specially trained crews were tasked with locating and destroying enemy missile defenses. Four F-100F Wild Weasels were fitted with APR-25 vector radar homing and warning receivers, IR-133 panoramic receivers with greater detection range, and KA-60 panoramic cameras. The APR-25 could detect early-warning radars and emissions from
SA-2 Guideline tracking and guidance systems. These aircraft deployed to
Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, in November 1965, began flying combat missions with the
388th Tactical Fighter Wing in December. They were joined by three more aircraft in February 1966. All Wild Weasel F-100Fs were eventually modified to fire the
AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missile.
Algerian war French Air Force Super Sabres of the
EC 1/3 Navarre flew combat missions, striking from bases within France against targets in
French Algeria. The planes were based at
Reims, refueling at
Istres on the return flight from Algeria. The F-100 was the main fighter-bomber operated by the French Air Force during the 1960s until the type was replaced by the
SEPECAT Jaguar.
Turkey Turkish Air Force F-100 units were used during the
Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. Together with
Lockheed F-104G Starfighters, they provided close air support to Turkish ground troops and bombed targets around Nicosia. Following previous intrusions in Soviet air space, on 24 August 1976, a pair of Turkish Air Force F-100s entered into the Soviet Union airspace. While three Su-15s were intercepting the intruders, a ground based Soviet SAM battery shot down one of the Turkish F-100s. In March 1987, Turkish Super Sabres bombed
PKK bases in northern Iraq. On 14 September 1983, a pair of Turkish Air Force F-100F Super Sabres of 182 Filo “Atmaca” penetrated Iraqi airspace. A Mirage F1EQ of the Iraqi Air Force intercepted the flight and fired a Super 530F-1 missile at them. One of the Turkish fighter jets (s/n 56-3903) was shot down and crashed in Zakho valley near the Turkish-Iraqi border. The plane's pilots reportedly survived the crash and were returned to Turkey. The incident was not made public by either side, although some details surfaced in later years. The incident was revealed in 2012 by Turkish Defence Minister
İsmet Yılmaz, in response to a parliamentary question by Republican People's Party (CHP) MP Metin Lütfi Baydar in the aftermath of the downing of a Turkish F-4 Phantom II in Syria, in 2012.
Taiwan Taiwan took delivery of 119 F-100As, 4 RF-100As, and 14 F-100Fs, and lost a number of F-100As and Fs in the course of service, but never lost a single RF-100A in either combat or accident. Those four RF-100As had never been sent on a reconnaissance mission over mainland China, as they could only produce photographic images of mediocre quality at best. Moreover, after each flying hour, the ground personnel had to spend over 100 hours on the aircraft maintenance. All of the RF-100As were returned to the US after one year and 11 months (1 January 1959 – 1 December 1960) in ROCAF service.
Achievements " painted over) • The first operational aircraft in
United States Air Force inventory capable of exceeding the
speed of sound in level flight. ==Variants==